Monday, May 28, 2007

Last week I received another fab parcel!It was from LaughingMouse(my great mate from Stitchlinks). Inside was a kitty card(sooooo cute), a ball of alpaca yarn(yummy) and also some knitting needles she had made!!! Unfortunately no photos as the camera is playing up. The needles are amazing...so original, rustic looking rather than commercial! I love them...thank you so much LaughingMouse you really made my day!I returned back to work a week ago and wow does my body feel it! I'm really glad to be back and have enjoyed it even though I'm very tired now.It does help having a 4 day weekend!!!!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Well since my last post I've been much more mobile! Thank you to everyone that sent good wishes and kind thoughts, they were very much appreciated.So I've still been off work this week trying to improve my back. I've even been doing some yoga, which I haven't done for a while!I visited Chris(sorry not sure how to do links) on Monday. Yes, we chatted loads...that's actually an understatement. I think my nerves come out in the form of verbal diarrhoea!?Anyway we went to her LYS which is closing down :( It's a real treasure trove. I managed to pick up..amongst other things... some pure wool dk(for my mates brothers socks) for 50p and 'Vintage Knits' for a pound!!!!! Yes you are reading correctly. I couldn't believe it. I think I spent about 26 pounds and came away with 2 big carrier bags FULL!!!! Thank you Chris for a lovely day.I've also been playing with my spinning wheel, since my back will now allow me to do so(since Wednesday I think). I've spun up and Navajoplied some of my 'practice fleece' that Janet gave me. I was so surprised when I skeined it up earlier to see I've managed to get 134yds!!!...and its reasonably even. I'm so pleased, it also seems pretty balanced. That's just hanging and drying in the kitchen.I've also spun(but not plied) some turquoise fleece Chris has given me. I spun it as it was rather than carding it and was pleased at how straight forward it was. So that's sitting on a bobbin waiting to ply.I've also named my wheel.....AUDREY.....and she likes it too!!!! We are learning a lot together and enjoying it.On the knitting front I'm half way thro' my second sock for my SP. I just need to get and do a few more things and then her final parcel can be sent.Talking of parcels. I received a lovely parcel from my 'Sock Wars' assassin Isabelle in Sweden. We decided to do a sock yarn swap months ago. Anyway, my parcel contained 2 balls of rainbow yarn, some dark choccie and a gorgeous necklace which she had made for me. Its beautiful, all blues and greens with seed, tubular and felted beads! Thank you soooooo much.Oh, I think J has decided the Conwy socks are hers as she's been wearing them to work this week!

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

I'd like to thank everyone for their good wishes regarding my back. I ended up in casualty earlier as I couldn't cope with it any longer. The staff were fantastic....even finding me a cubicle quickly so I could lie down! However the diagnosis has now been changed from inflamed disc to muscular. Now I'm happy it's nothing serious but it's still b@$$#y painful!!

I discovered, much to my relief that I can knit lying down! So here are the finished Conwy socks. I'm really pleased with them but if I knitted them again I would use a 'normal' toe decrease. The pattern asks for a k2tog 4 times evenly over the round and so produces a pointy toe. I don't know, maybe it'll grown on me!

Saturday we had our last day of sunshine for the time being. I decided to start to wash my fleece I was given. I knelt in the back garden and got the fleece out of the bag. My neighbour's children thought it was great..."...wool from a REAL sheep!!". It really tickled me.

Above is my makeshift drying rack for the small portion of fleece I washed........a broken maiden(clothes horse) over a washing basket. It worked great!..since then I've managed to wash the rest of it in small batches, so just waiting to be able to spin again to try it out!

I couldn't resist this photo of Maddy that J managed to get of her sunning and shading herself at the same time.

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Friday I felt a twinge in my mid back and thought nothing of it. Since Saturday I've been in what could be said rather a lot of pain to put it mildly. I tried to go to work Monday but was sent home after half an hour!Managed to get an appointment with the emergency doctor on Monday night and he came to the conclusion I've got an inflamed/swollen disc !!!! aaagggghhhhh I really don't want that :(Anyway due to the strong painkillers I take for my ME and fybromyalgia all he gave me was some diazepam to relax my muscles.....consequently I've been sleeping a lot!Saw a GP from my practice on Tuesday and asked for a physio referral so I'm just waiting for that now.Sorry for going on but I've not been able to do any spinning at all....and knitting has been difficult as I can't find a comfortable position to sit in. I've managed to knit a little bit and turned the heel and done most of the gusset decreases for my Conwy socks.Anne...the Conwy pattern comes from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush....its really straight forward just a 4 row repeat(I only had to frog it as I didn't realise there were calf decreases...duh should have read the pattern properly!)Right off to lie on the sofa........